Posted on 05/26/2007 2:02:20 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
LAS VEGAS -- There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy.
In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric "mobility scooters."
Don't think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchairs.
Forking over about $40 a day and their pride, apparently healthy tourists are cruising around Las Vegas casinos in transportation intended for the infirm.
You don't have to take a step. You don't even have to put your drink down.
"It was all the walking," 27-year-old Simon Lezama said on his red Merits Pioneer 3. Lezama, a trim and fit-looking restaurant manager from Odessa, rented it on day three of his five-day vacation.
"And now I can drink and drive, be responsible and save my feet."
The Las Vegas Strip is long past its easily walkable days. Casinos are nearly the size of two football fields -- and that doesn't count the hotel rooms, shopping malls, spas, convention centers, bars and restaurants.
For tourists who plan to stroll from one big casino to another, there are also crowds, construction sites and long stretches of sun-baked sidewalks between.
A tourist could accidentally get some exercise.
Rental business
"We're seeing more and more young people just for the fact that the Strip has gotten so big, the hotels are so large," said Marcel Maritz, owner of Active Mobility, a scooter rental company whose inventory also includes wheelchairs, crutches and walkers.
Most of those using the scooters are obese, elderly or disabled.
But many are young and seemingly fit.
The number of able-bodied renters has grown in the past few years to represent as much as 5 percent of Maritz's business, he said. The company, which contracts with some casinos, has a fleet of about 300 scooters.
"It makes it a lot easier for people to see everything," he said.
At full throttle the scooters reach about 5 mph, though crowded sidewalks allow little opportunity for such speeds.
They can go anywhere wheelchairs can -- elevators, bars, craps tables -- but are banned from streets. They come with a quick operating lesson, an instruction booklet, a horn and a basket.
"At first, I figured it was for handicapped people, but then I saw everybody was getting them. I figured I might as well, too," Lezama said.
Critics
Some find the notion of using a device intended for disabled people unethical.
"It's the same principle as parking in a handicap spot," said Mike Petillo, 64, a disabled tax accountant who recently visited from New York City.
Several hotel desk workers -- who handle most of the rental requests from tourists -- said they try to discourage people who do not appear to need the scooters from renting.
Michelle Bailey, a slender, apparently healthy 22-year-old from Texas, used a scooter to get around a recent pool tournament at the Riviera hotel-casino.
"Four-inch heels," she explained with a laugh, pointing to her lipstick-red pumps.
Simon Lezama, 27, of Odessa drives his electric mobility scooter at the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Good God, what a nation of fat, lazy, worthless pieces of sh!t we’re becoming.
You should see this lady in my neighborhood. Weighs about 400 pounds riding a scooter while walking her dog on a leash.
Amazing. I’m not a picture of good fitness but even I can walk the strip.
If you want to see how bad it’s getting,go to one of the all-you-can-eat buffet/steakhouses.You will see the worst of the worst gluttons on the planet.
Supermarkets have those, too.
But it’s not the frail little old ladies that use them. It’s the morbidly obese 40/50 year olds. And the scooters don’t have arm rests, so Mr./Ms. Plump’s derriere hangs over both sides of the seat.
They don’t seem to get the irony of driving around the aisles, filling the cart with the food that’s making them fat...
It’s hard to tell just how “trim and fit-looking” Mr. Lezma is in that Fred Durst outfit of baggy shorts and football jersey.
That combo could make anyone look fat.
So ends my fashonista rant.
I hope the rental company gets its money upfront and that the scooters have global positioning on them, they may be the only way home for some folks :)
What’s next? Hiring people to pull the levers?
Note to self: Get to Vegas and open that helper-monkey and muumuu rental shop ASAP.
Isn’t this just what that segway scooter thing was meant for? I think I see a business oportunity here that no one seems to be pouncing on.
I know I’d rather stand tall than sit in a crappy old handy-capped scooter. Also, the segway would be less obtrusive to others since it takes up far less floor space.
Supermarkets should put the really fatty, high-calorie foods on the top shelf *snicker*
I’m not hurting anybody, I bought it with my own funds, and I’m not paying $3.50/gallon for gas.’’I do not use handicapped parking spaces for it (but I DO use a motorcycle / bicycle space).
I do NOT take it into stores, preferring to walk around with my shopping cart.
I have purchased a bicycle trailer to drag behind the chair, and it can carry 100 lbs of groceries.
All in all, I’m quite happy with it.
As a bonus, drunken Segway riders might provide extra entertainment. That balancing system can only go so far.
Try that drinking and driving on your scooter in Florida. Your stupid scooter would be confiscated and you’d be in jail. They’ll charge DUI here if you’re riding a horse, or lawn tractor.
Nonsense - it's best to walk it anyway. I lose five pounds every time I go. ;)
Well at least, as handicapped as she is, she still takes care of her dog. How about praying for her health instead of making fun of her?
I am on a diet. Fat people aren’t jolly when they diet. Maybe these “gluttons” have saved calories for this trip. Maybe they are just enjoying their vacation. Maybe they walk across the casinos. I’m really getting tired of the fat “snickers” around here.
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